Qantas to release thousands of Classic Reward seats in Y, PE, J, F on 24 Feb 2023 around 11am

[SYD]

Not likely a popular opinion but these additional point seat releases in the premium cabins hurt more then help actual frequent flyers versus those collecting points via any and all methods on the ground.. means far less opportunity for upgrades on purchased flights to popular destinations.

Personally I'd prefer to see it limited to main cabin for full point redemptions - in all my years of flying with status I have never redeemed a flight in full for points of any cabin.

These are most likely the seats that weren’t released 353 days out (over the last year or so) anyway.

 

[jpp42]

Not likely a popular opinion but these additional point seat releases in the premium cabins hurt more then help actual frequent flyers versus those collecting points via any and all methods on the ground.. means far less opportunity for upgrades on purchased flights to popular destinations.

The fact that seats are typically released to Platinum FF's first, and then cascaded to other tiers, helps mitigate this. With massive schedule changes in recent months this standard process has been upended a bit, but this is meant to be a way to ensure it's actual frequent fliers, while although occasionally SC's can be earned on the ground, the bulk of them still come from flying.

 

[Spizz]

Looks like they won't be all release at once and only 25% this Friday.

 

[exLXCXFF]

Do you have a link? In these releases QF has a habit of offering thousands in Y on SYD - MEL - BNE triangle and 1 extra seat in J to somehwere.

From the QF News Room statement:

• “Tens of thousands of new international reward seats to be released for frequent flyers from this Friday”

 

[SYD]

From the QF News Room statement:

• “Tens of thousands of new international reward seats to be released for frequent flyers from this Friday”

and explicitly says J and F also.

 

[Danger]

From the QF News Room statement:

• “Tens of thousands of new international reward seats to be released for frequent flyers from this Friday”

So between Friday and the next, what, 50 years, there'll be "tens of thousands" of seats released? Definitely sounds like Qantas marketing to me.

 

[mviy]

At the moment I can only travel where I want to go on holiday at peak times, so I doubt this seat release will be useful for me, but hoping that some friends can benefit.

 

[Zanzara]

Guess they need to keep creating these media hyped up stunts from time to time to keep people from being completely disinterested & disillusioned. Hopefully people will get to redeem their hard earned points in J on QF (rather than JL, CX, MH etc that seems to be norm).

 

[TravsTravels]

Not likely a popular opinion but these additional point seat releases in the premium cabins hurt more then help actual frequent flyers versus those collecting points via any and all methods on the ground.. means far less opportunity for upgrades on purchased flights to popular destinations.

Personally I'd prefer to see it limited to main cabin for full point redemptions - in all my years of flying with status I have never redeemed a flight in full for points of any cabin.

I'm basically the opposite. Had many outright redemptions without issue but only a few upgrades on domestic only (usually confirmed upon request as outright redemptions are available). With any luck, will get my first international upgrade on Thursday morning flying to ICN. I've always found upgrades to be much worse value per point, plus they just aren't guaranteed unlike a classic reward.

 

[Lynda2475]

They have already been releasing block of J and PE seats for US routes over the last fortnight (July & August). So i imagine will be other dates/routes. Im basically all out of points (pending deduction not yet processed for OWA) so i cant avail myself.

Good luck to everyone else.

 

[levelnine]

Guess they need to keep creating these media hyped up stunts from time to time to keep people from being completely disinterested & disillusioned.

I actually think this is truly one of the reasons for the switch in award release patterns post-COVID.

QF realised they can get a fair amount of free publicity from big dumps of award seats. They couldn't get them from releasing two seats per flight at T-330.

 

[dajop]

Another thought, they could be holding back availability so they can create a PR storm saying they're releasing x million seats for redemption. But, no that would be most unlike Qantas to do that.

Hmm. Entirely predictable. Quoting myself from 4 Feb in this thread here:

Qantas flight to Singapore

Hi All. First time post here. I am currently a bronze tier and looking for Perth to Singapore direct using qantas for early December 2023 but it seems that there is no reward seats available yet post 31st May 2023 and seems to be the same for all Australian Capital cities (ie Sydney to...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Although I though it might take them longer than 3 weeks for this to happen

 

[SYD]

They couldn't get them from releasing two seats per flight at T-330.

T-353 days for many of us here and they’ve not been forthcoming. Not even whY seats on some routes that would normally have a dozen or so.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Not likely a popular opinion but these additional point seat releases in the premium cabins hurt more then help actual frequent flyers versus those collecting points via any and all methods on the ground.. means far less opportunity for upgrades on purchased flights to popular destinations.

Personally I'd prefer to see it limited to main cabin for full point redemptions - in all my years of flying with status I have never redeemed a flight in full for points of any cabin.

bah, what role do frequent flyers play in the Qantas Frequent Flyer Buyer program?

 

[CaptJCool]

The trouble of course is ”everyone” was stockpiling points from March 2020 until now. An extra $540 million of non-current from 2019 (uplift around 1/3 more)

noting the no discounts no reward Seats use up your expiring travel credits 2022 Christmas season

 

[MelbFlyer]

I've got a JQ flight (out of all airlines and flights!) for the final leg of my trip later this year as that's all I could find at the time I booked my trip a few weeks ago.

There wasn't even a QF classic rewards economy seat from Singapore to Melbourne on the date that I wanted, so I had to settle for JQ.

I'll be checking on Friday for any alternatives for sure.

 

[JohnK]

Meanwhile trying to return from SE Asia in 2 weeks time requires 360,000 QFF points + some ridiculous surcharge.

Qantas may be wondering why I've been reluctant to book their generous availability.

 

[offshore171]

The trouble of course is ”everyone” was stockpiling points from March 2020 until now. An extra $540 million of non-current from 2019 (uplift around 1/3 more)

Too many points out in the wild, chasing too few seats.

It's a situation that mirrors the economics of the real world. The reason we have inflation right now is because there's too much money out there chasing too few goods and services. Prices go up.

Money supply is high due to covid stimulus measures, low interest rates, and govt's literally printing money.

Supply side still short in many areas due to supply chain issues and labour shortages.

Textbook recipe for inflation, and the reason why they are now aggressively hiking interest rates (essentially increasing the "price" of money)

All this leads to a likely FF points devaluation in the near future.

 

[dajop]

Meanwhile trying to return from SE Asia in 2 weeks time requires 360,000 QFF points + some ridiculous surcharge.

Qantas may be wondering why I've been reluctant to book their generous availability.

I think that's the whole point. They've been holding off on availability of classic awards (so why you can't secure them), so they can engage the public and media and say "look how wonderful we are, we're releasing all these extra seats", whereas in the past they would have just drip fed them in. It's all just smoke and mirrors, but 95% of the public, and even 90% of AFF'ers will fall for it and think how wonderful they are!

 

[SYD]

and think how wonderful they are!

The AFF'rs or QANTAS? (or perhaps Virgin "Wonderful" )

I'll be grateful if I can secure a few things that have been alluding me....